I wonder which way this argument would go if they would have made da2 more complex rather than simplified.

Added classes, monsters, skills, more exploration, choice and consequence and continued the story allowing you to actually import your save game, while keeping the same core gameplay intact.

Then it would have been a whole different ballgame. I think the bg series was better than da i'm not sure just bg alone was. da falls just short for me but had they improved and added to da when making da2 then it very well could have surpassed bg imo.

Disclaimer: I play bg2, iwd and iwd 2 almost yearly so it's not just nostalgia here. They are still great game today.